


to living

by remain__nameless



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Extremis (Marvel), Extremis Fixes Everything, Extremis Pepper Potts, Extremis Tony Stark, F/M, Fix-It, How Do I Tag, In This House We're In Denial, It's Very Convenient, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Protective Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 02:20:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remain__nameless/pseuds/remain__nameless
Summary: In the end, what saves his life is the golden-orange liquid inside the whiskey glass Pepper handed him before he left...........(It wasn't alcohol)





	to living

“Here,” Pepper’s voice sounds to his side, and half filled glass enters his line of sight.

He looks at her quizzically, and she just smiles. “A toast of sorts,” she explains, “To success. To _life_.”

Her smile is larger now, and sadder too. He stops and analyses her face, from the bags under her eyes, her slightly messier than usual hair and chapped lips, to the barely there shakiness of her hands, which are holding matching glasses.

He looks at the glasses—three fingers of an orange-gold liquid, three ice cubes swirling lightly inside—and makes a decision.

He takes the glass, and clinks it with hers. “To living.”

Pepper’s smile turns relieved when he drinks, and she soon follows his cue.

“To living,” she repeats and bends foward to kiss him. He kisses her back, and they stand there like that for he doesn’t know how long.

( ~~It’s not a goodbye kiss. It’s really _not_ , and it feels great, the certainity.~~)

“Will that be all, Mr. Stark?” she murmurs against his lips.

“That will be all, Ms. Potts,” he answers promptly and gives her a quick peck on the lips before handing the empty glass back to her and getting into the car.

As he drives away, he looks at Pepper through the rearview mirror. She’s standing in the middle of the street, and maybe his mind is playing tricks on him, but the sunlight peeking through the trees makes it look like her skin is on fire.

He feels warmth spreading from his insides to his fingertips. It doesn’t feel like the burn caused by alcohol.

But really, it’s been seven years since Pepper banned all alcoholic beverages from their home.

He isn’t surprised.

Out of the two of them, Pepper had always had the best ideas.

* * *

“ _I am Iron Man._ ”

The warmth that had been quietly sitting under his skin surges forward as he snaps his fingers, turns into a raging fire that spreads across every inch of his body.

He can feel the radiation coming from the Stones, can feel the way it is quickly killing him.

But the fire is spreading faster, and he is _healing_ faster than the radiation is destroying him.

He will live. He will live to see Morgan grow, to see her become a teenager and then an adult, he will be there for her, like he promised himself on the day she was born, he will be there for his daughter.

He will live to see Peter and Harley finally graduate high school, now that they had that chance again.

He will live to see the Avengers flourish again, like they hadn’t been able to before with the weight of trillions of lives haunting them.

He will _live_.

And with that thought, he lets himself slip out of consciousness, safe in the knowledge that Thanos was dead and _they were alive_.

As he closes his eyes, he sees the Rescue armor touch the floor in front of him, and the faceplate recedes to reveal Pepper’s weary, but smiling, face.

“To living,” she mouths at him, and he manages a smile before his eyes close, finally sending him into blissful unawareness.

To living, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first piece born out of my sheer ~~anger~~ frustration with the MCU, hope y'all like it. 
> 
> -My version of Extremis in this is similar to the one in Superior Iron Man? like, the no injections necessary only ingesting it is fine??? but its also,,,, not like that?? at all?? because I didn't understand it and only read a few volumes??? its a pretty fanon hand wavy bullshit thats what I'm trying to tell ya okay
> 
> (its fine. if the Russo's can half ass their way through time travel for plot reasons then we're entitled to that right too)
> 
> \- this was written and posted from my phone so I have no clue if the formatting is okay. if it's shit please please _please_ warn me 
> 
> -I'm also not a native english speaker and while I'm fairly confident on things like grammar and stuff (if it's wrong it's just because I'm dumb and my eyes burn, sorry) I'm awful with idioms and expressions so if I misused anything please correct me 
> 
> \- please please please please leave kudos or comments or both I need the validation  
> (even if you don't know what to write. I just spam the authors with heart emojis bc im trash like that)  
> (a :) is okay. its great)  
> (or a :( if thats how you feel)  
> (anything)  
> (please)
> 
> EDIT: i feel like I have to make it clearer that I dont plan on continuing this, not as a multichaptered fic and not as the first part of a series. I had plans for a series, actually, but I liked this as a standalone _too much _to expand it and if the series ever becomes a thing it will be separate from this__  
>  i felt like this was necessary because I saw that some people subscribed to this (which- shdjdhlsh thanks so much yall) and i didnt want you guys to expect an update that wont happen. sorry


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